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<h1>Penlight</h1>

<ul>
  <li><a href="https://github.com/lunarmodules/Penlight">GitHub Project</a></li>
  <li><a href="../index.html">Documentation</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Extra_String_Methods">Extra String Methods </a></li>
<li><a href="#String_Templates">String Templates </a></li>
<li><a href="#Another_Style_of_Template">Another Style of Template </a></li>
<li><a href="#File_style_I_O_on_Strings">File-style I/O on Strings </a></li>
</ul>


<h2>Manual</h2>
<ul class="nowrap">
  <li><a href="../manual/01-introduction.md.html">Introduction</a></li>
  <li><a href="../manual/02-arrays.md.html">Tables and Arrays</a></li>
  <li><strong>Strings. Higher-level operations on strings.</strong></li>
  <li><a href="../manual/04-paths.md.html">Paths and Directories</a></li>
  <li><a href="../manual/05-dates.md.html">Date and Time</a></li>
  <li><a href="../manual/06-data.md.html">Data</a></li>
  <li><a href="../manual/07-functional.md.html">Functional Programming</a></li>
  <li><a href="../manual/08-additional.md.html">Additional Libraries</a></li>
  <li><a href="../manual/09-discussion.md.html">Technical Choices</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Libraries</h2>
<ul class="nowrap">
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.html">pl</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.app.html">pl.app</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.array2d.html">pl.array2d</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.class.html">pl.class</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.compat.html">pl.compat</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.comprehension.html">pl.comprehension</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.config.html">pl.config</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.data.html">pl.data</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.dir.html">pl.dir</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.file.html">pl.file</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.func.html">pl.func</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.import_into.html">pl.import_into</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.input.html">pl.input</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.lapp.html">pl.lapp</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.lexer.html">pl.lexer</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.luabalanced.html">pl.luabalanced</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.operator.html">pl.operator</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.path.html">pl.path</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.permute.html">pl.permute</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.pretty.html">pl.pretty</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.seq.html">pl.seq</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.sip.html">pl.sip</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.strict.html">pl.strict</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.stringio.html">pl.stringio</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.stringx.html">pl.stringx</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.tablex.html">pl.tablex</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.template.html">pl.template</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.test.html">pl.test</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.text.html">pl.text</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.types.html">pl.types</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.url.html">pl.url</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.utils.html">pl.utils</a></li>
  <li><a href="../libraries/pl.xml.html">pl.xml</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Classes</h2>
<ul class="nowrap">
  <li><a href="../classes/pl.Date.html">pl.Date</a></li>
  <li><a href="../classes/pl.List.html">pl.List</a></li>
  <li><a href="../classes/pl.Map.html">pl.Map</a></li>
  <li><a href="../classes/pl.MultiMap.html">pl.MultiMap</a></li>
  <li><a href="../classes/pl.OrderedMap.html">pl.OrderedMap</a></li>
  <li><a href="../classes/pl.Set.html">pl.Set</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Examples</h2>
<ul class="nowrap">
  <li><a href="../examples/seesubst.lua.html">seesubst.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/sipscan.lua.html">sipscan.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/symbols.lua.html">symbols.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/test-cmp.lua.html">test-cmp.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/test-data.lua.html">test-data.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/test-listcallbacks.lua.html">test-listcallbacks.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/test-pretty.lua.html">test-pretty.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/test-symbols.lua.html">test-symbols.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/testclone.lua.html">testclone.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/testconfig.lua.html">testconfig.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/testglobal.lua.html">testglobal.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/testinputfields.lua.html">testinputfields.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/testinputfields2.lua.html">testinputfields2.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/testxml.lua.html">testxml.lua</a></li>
  <li><a href="../examples/which.lua.html">which.lua</a></li>
</ul>

</div>

<div id="content">


<h2>Strings. Higher-level operations on strings.</h2>

<p><a name="Extra_String_Methods"></a></p>
<h3>Extra String Methods</h3>


<p>These are convenient borrowings from Python, as described in 3.6.1 of the Python
reference, but note that indices in Lua always begin at one. <a href="../libraries/pl.stringx.html#">stringx</a> defines
functions like <a href="../libraries/pl.stringx.html#isalpha">isalpha</a> and <a href="../libraries/pl.stringx.html#isdigit">isdigit</a>, which return <code>true</code> if s is only composed
of letters or digits respectively. <a href="../libraries/pl.stringx.html#startswith">startswith</a> and <a href="../libraries/pl.stringx.html#endswith">endswith</a> are convenient
ways to find substrings. (<a href="../libraries/pl.stringx.html#endswith">endswith</a> works as in Python 2.5, so that `f:endswith
{'.bat','.exe','.cmd'}` will be true for any filename which ends with these
extensions.) There are justify methods and whitespace trimming functions like
<a href="../libraries/pl.stringx.html#strip">strip</a>.</p>


<pre>
&gt; stringx.<span class="function-name">import</span>()
&gt; (<span class="string">'bonzo.dog'</span>):<span class="function-name">endswith</span> {<span class="string">'.dog'</span>,<span class="string">'.cat'</span>}
<span class="keyword">true</span>
&gt; (<span class="string">'bonzo.txt'</span>):<span class="function-name">endswith</span> {<span class="string">'.dog'</span>,<span class="string">'.cat'</span>}
<span class="keyword">false</span>
&gt; (<span class="string">'bonzo.cat'</span>):<span class="function-name">endswith</span> {<span class="string">'.dog'</span>,<span class="string">'.cat'</span>}
<span class="keyword">true</span>
&gt; (<span class="string">' stuff'</span>):<span class="function-name">ljust</span>(<span class="number">20</span>,<span class="string">'+'</span>)
<span class="string">'++++++++++++++ stuff'</span>
&gt; (<span class="string">'  stuff '</span>):<span class="function-name">lstrip</span>()
<span class="string">'stuff '</span>
&gt; (<span class="string">'  stuff '</span>):<span class="function-name">rstrip</span>()
<span class="string">'  stuff'</span>
&gt; (<span class="string">'  stuff '</span>):<span class="function-name">strip</span>()
<span class="string">'stuff'</span>
&gt; <span class="keyword">for</span> s <span class="keyword">in</span> (<span class="string">'one\ntwo\nthree\n'</span>):<span class="function-name">lines</span>() <span class="keyword">do</span> <span class="global">print</span>(s) <span class="keyword">end</span>
one
two
three
</pre>

<p>Most of these can be fairly easily implemented using the Lua string library,
which is more general and powerful. But they are convenient operations to have
easily at hand. Note that can be injected into the <a href="https://www.lua.org/manual/5.4/manual.html#6.4">string</a> table if you use
<a href="../libraries/pl.stringx.html#import">stringx.import</a>, but a simple alias like <code>local stringx = require &apos;pl.stringx&apos;</code>
is preferable. This is the recommended practice when writing modules for
consumption by other people, since it is bad manners to change the global state
of the rest of the system. Magic may be used for convenience, but there is always
a price.</p>


<p><a name="String_Templates"></a></p>
<h3>String Templates</h3>


<p>Another borrowing from Python, string templates allow you to substitute values
looked up in a table:</p>


<pre>
<span class="keyword">local</span> Template = <span class="global">require</span> (<span class="string">'pl.text'</span>).Template
t = <span class="function-name">Template</span>(<span class="string">'${here} is the $answer'</span>)
<span class="global">print</span>(t:<span class="function-name">substitute</span> {here = <span class="string">'Lua'</span>, answer = <span class="string">'best'</span>})
==&gt;
Lua is the best
</pre>

<p>'$ variables' can optionally have curly braces; this form is useful if you are
glueing text together to make variables, e.g <code>${prefix}_name_${postfix}</code>. The
<code>substitute</code> method will throw an error if a $ variable is not found in the
table, and the <code>safe_substitute</code> method will not.</p>

<p>The Lua implementation has an extra method, <code>indent_substitute</code> which is very
useful for inserting blocks of text, because it adjusts indentation. Consider
this example:</p>


<pre>
<span class="comment">-- testtemplate.lua
</span><span class="keyword">local</span> Template = <span class="global">require</span> (<span class="string">'pl.text'</span>).Template

t = <span class="function-name">Template</span> <span class="string">[[
    for i = 1,#$t do
        $body
    end
]]</span>

body = <span class="function-name">Template</span> <span class="string">[[
local row = $t[i]
for j = 1,#row do
    fun(row[j])
end
]]</span>

<span class="global">print</span>(t:<span class="function-name">indent_substitute</span> {body=body,t=<span class="string">'tbl'</span>})
</pre>

<p>And the output is:</p>


<pre>
<span class="keyword">for</span> i = <span class="number">1</span>,#tbl <span class="keyword">do</span>
    <span class="keyword">local</span> row = tbl[i]
    <span class="keyword">for</span> j = <span class="number">1</span>,#row <span class="keyword">do</span>
        <span class="function-name">fun</span>(row[j])
    <span class="keyword">end</span>
<span class="keyword">end</span>
</pre>

<p><code>indent_substitute</code> can substitute templates, and in which case they themselves
will be substituted using the given table. So in this case, <code>$t</code> was substituted
twice.</p>

<p><a href="../libraries/pl.text.html#">pl.text</a> also has a number of useful functions like <code>dedent</code>, which strips all
the initial indentation from a multiline string. As in Python, this is useful for
preprocessing multiline strings if you like indenting them with your code. The
function <code>wrap</code> is passed a long string (a <em>paragraph</em>) and returns a list of
lines that fit into a desired line width. As an extension, there is also <code>indent</code>
for indenting multiline strings.</p>

<p>New in Penlight with the 0.9 series is <code>text.format_operator</code>. Calling this
enables Python-style string formatting using the modulo operator <code>%</code>:</p>


<pre>
&gt; text.<span class="function-name">format_operator</span>()
&gt; = <span class="string">'%s[%d]'</span> % {<span class="string">'dog'</span>,<span class="number">1</span>}
dog[<span class="number">1</span>]
</pre>

<p>So in its simplest form it saves the typing involved with <a href="https://www.lua.org/manual/5.4/manual.html#pdf-string.format">string.format</a>; it
will also expand <code>$</code> variables using named fields:</p>


<pre>
&gt; = <span class="string">'$animal[$num]'</span> % {animal=<span class="string">'dog'</span>,num=<span class="number">1</span>}
dog[<span class="number">1</span>]
</pre>

<p>As with <a href="../libraries/pl.stringx.html#import">stringx.import</a> you have to do this explicitly, since all strings share the same
metatable. But in your own scripts you can feel free to do this.</p>

<p><a name="Another_Style_of_Template"></a></p>
<h3>Another Style of Template</h3>

<p>A new module is <a href="../libraries/pl.template.html#">template</a>, which is a version of Rici Lake's <a href="http://lua-users.org/wiki/SlightlyLessSimpleLuaPreprocessor">Lua
Preprocessor</a>.  This
allows you to mix Lua code with your templates in a straightforward way. There
are only two rules:</p>

<ul>
    <li>Lines beginning with <code>#</code> are Lua</li>
    <li>Otherwise, anything inside <code>$()</code> is a Lua expression.</li>
</ul>

<p>So a template generating an HTML list would look like this:</p>


<pre>
&lt;ul&gt;
# <span class="keyword">for</span> i,val <span class="keyword">in</span> <span class="global">ipairs</span>(T) <span class="keyword">do</span>
&lt;li&gt;$(i) = $(val:<span class="function-name">upper</span>())&lt;/li&gt;
# <span class="keyword">end</span>
&lt;/ul&gt;
</pre>

<p>Assume the text is inside <code>tmpl</code>, then the template can be expanded using:</p>


<pre>
<span class="keyword">local</span> template = <span class="global">require</span> <span class="string">'pl.template'</span>
<span class="keyword">local</span> my_env = {
  <span class="global">ipairs</span> = <span class="global">ipairs</span>,
  T = {<span class="string">'one'</span>,<span class="string">'two'</span>,<span class="string">'three'</span>}
}
res = template.<span class="function-name">substitute</span>(tmpl, my_env)
</pre>

<p>and we get</p>


<pre>
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;<span class="number">1</span> = ONE&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;<span class="number">2</span> = TWO&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;<span class="number">3</span> = THREE&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
</pre>

<p>There is a single function, <a href="../libraries/pl.template.html#substitute">template.substitute</a> which is passed a template
string and an environment table.   This table may contain some special fields,
like <code>\_parent</code> which can be set to a table representing a 'fallback' environment
in case a symbol was not found. <code>\_brackets</code> is usually '()' and <code>\_escape</code> is
usually '#' but it's sometimes necessary to redefine these if the defaults
interfere with the target language - for instance, <code>$(V)</code> has another meaning in
Make, and <code>#</code> means a preprocessor line in C/C++.</p>

<p>Finally, if something goes wrong, passing <code>_debug</code> will cause the intermediate
Lua code to be dumped if there's a problem.</p>

<p>Here is a C code generation example; something that could easily be extended to
be a minimal Lua extension skeleton generator.</p>


<pre>
<span class="keyword">local</span> subst = <span class="global">require</span> <span class="string">'pl.template'</span>.substitute

<span class="keyword">local</span> templ = <span class="string">[[
#include &lt;lua.h&gt;
#include &lt;lauxlib.h&gt;
#include &lt;lualib.h&gt;

&gt; for _,f in ipairs(mod) do
static int l_$(f.name) (lua_State *L) {

}
&gt; end

static const luaL_reg $(mod.name)[] = {
&gt; for _,f in ipairs(mod) do
    {"$(f.name)",l_$(f.name)},
&gt; end
    {NULL,NULL}
};

int luaopen_$(mod.name) {
   luaL_register (L, "$(mod.name)", $(mod.name));
    return 1;
}
]]</span>

<span class="global">print</span>(<span class="function-name">subst</span>(templ,{
    _escape = <span class="string">'&gt;'</span>,
    <span class="global">ipairs</span> = <span class="global">ipairs</span>,
    mod = {
        name = <span class="string">'baggins'</span>;
        {name=<span class="string">'frodo'</span>},
        {name=<span class="string">'bilbo'</span>}
    }
}))
</pre>

<p><a name="File_style_I_O_on_Strings"></a></p>
<h3>File-style I/O on Strings</h3>

<p><a href="../libraries/pl.stringio.html#">pl.stringio</a>  provides just three functions; <a href="../libraries/pl.stringio.html#open">stringio.open</a> is passed a string,
and returns a file-like object for reading. It supports a <code>read</code> method, which
takes the same arguments as standard file objects:</p>


<pre>
&gt; f = stringio.<span class="function-name">open</span> <span class="string">'first line\n10 20 30\n'</span>
&gt; = f:<span class="function-name">read</span>()
first line
&gt; = f:<span class="function-name">read</span>(<span class="string">'*n'</span>,<span class="string">'*n'</span>,<span class="string">'*n'</span>)
<span class="number">10</span>    <span class="number">20</span>    <span class="number">30</span>
</pre>

<p><code>lines</code> and <code>seek</code> are also supported.</p>

<p><code>stringio.lines</code> is a useful short-cut for iterating over all the lines in a
string.</p>

<p><a href="../libraries/pl.stringio.html#create">stringio.create</a> creates a writeable file-like object. You then use <code>write</code> to
this stream, and finally extract the built string using <code>value</code>.  This 'string
builder' pattern is useful for efficiently creating large strings.</p>



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